


Through and Through

by puptart



Category: Zombies Run!
Genre: Gen, Gender-Neutral Runner Five, Hurt/Comfort, Season 3 Spoilers, Stitches
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-29
Updated: 2016-08-29
Packaged: 2018-08-11 19:29:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,180
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7904773
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/puptart/pseuds/puptart
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>********Major Season 3 Spoilers**********</p><p>Runner Five has a complicated relationship with Simon. Simon has complicated relationships with everyone, including himself.</p><p>(Complete summary in notes)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Through and Through

**Author's Note:**

  * For [CinderScoria](https://archiveofourown.org/users/CinderScoria/gifts).



> Simon doesn't know how to take care of himself, and Five's not that great at it either, but they manage to hold it together, when they're together.
> 
> I hope you like this, Cinderscoria!

The tapes of Moonchild and her father haunts Five for the rest of the day, and well into the night. They’ve taken shelter with Simon and Maxine in an abandoned, mostly intact, hair salon; they couldn’t be more grateful that no one had suggested staying in Moonchild’s old home for the night. Maxine is sleeping peacefully not too far away, while Five stares at the ceiling in the dark, unable to sleep.

Moonchild had been trying to save her father from depression. She’d just been trying to help, in the beginning, and went so wrong somewhere along the way. Five can’t help but wonder if that’s the thing that drew her to them, if she could somehow sense the dread constantly in their belly, the apathy, and how hard they fight to keep moving forward every single day.

Covering their eyes with their hands they sigh, and sit up. They won’t be sleeping tonight, it seems. 

Simon’s sitting outside, back to the wall, and he looks up when Five slips out the front door.

“You ought to be sleeping,” he says, raising an eyebrow. “Big day tomorrow. Need your rest and all that.”

“I’ll take my watch now,” Five tells him, but he just gives them a sharp grin, almost mocking.

“I don’t sleep now, or didn’t you know?” He chuckles a little manically. “Not much, anyways. Also I’ve got the eyes.”

“You can see in the dark?” Five asks, stepping over to settle in beside him. The sidewalk is freezing, sapping every bit of warmth they’d managed to acquire while in their sleeping bag. He sighs and throws an arm over their shoulder.

“That I can,” he says. Five hums, and stares out at the street, empty, and cold, and dark. They listen to the sound of Simon’s breathing, and keep waiting for it to go ragged and terrible, the way it had been when they first found him in Dedlock territory.

Or really, when he’d found them.

Five still doesn’t know what to make of him trying to hunt them down, just to give them some information he probably could’ve gotten to Abel some other way that didn’t include showing his face (so to speak) to anyone at all. The fact that he did reveal himself to Five is the reason he’s not still in his little shack, undisturbed. He must’ve known that was a risk. He’d done it anyways.

“Talking to me now that Five is here, Sammy? Typical,” Simon scoffs. Five glances up, straining their ears to hear the tinny sounds of Sam saying something to Simon, something not particularly friendly, given the tone. “Ooooh, don’t like me cozying up to your runner?”

“Stop, Simon,” Five chides. He flashes a grin that makes Five think they’ve only fed the fire.

“I heard you two had a domestic after the whole Jody situation,” Simon says, half to Five and half to Sam. “Can’t blame them for looking to rebound, can- Ow!” He yelps when Five elbows him, too loud.

“Sh!” Five looks around nervously. For once though, it’s not zoms they’re afraid of attracting.

The street remains empty, and cold, and dark. No sounds follow but wind, no motion attracts their eye. After a moment they turn back to glare at Simon, only to see his face still twisted in pain and much paler than usual.

“Si?” they ask, a little nervous. They’d elbowed him pretty hard, but not enough to crack a rib or anything. He hisses in a pained breath through the teeth, and works a hand up under his shirt and jacket, pressing it to the spot Five had elbowed him. When he pulls it back out, something wet and dark coats his fingers. “Wha- Simon?!”

“Sh!” Simon mocks them, giving a twisted little smile. “Just a scratch.”

“Are you hurt?” Five demands.

“Just a scratch.”

“Shut up. Show me.” 

He fights off their effort to look themself. “Stop, stop. Not out here, come on.”

Five helps him to his feet, and together they go inside the salon. There’s a little solar lamp they know is in their pack they can use to inspect the wound, so they put Simon in one of the chairs lined up in front of the mirrors, then start digging in their bag. 

They’ve had explosions go off close enough to make their feet leave the ground, they’ve had bullets graze their skin, they’ve had a zombie wrap its hand around their ankle, but through all of that, their hands hadn’t shaken as badly as they do now, trying to find a stupid lamp for a guy who can't die anyways.

“Five?” Maxine asks sleepily. “Wha- Is it time?”

“No, no, it’s,” Five growls in frustration, and since there’s no risk of waking Maxine anymore, they simply upturn the backpack and begin sorting through the pile of crap that falls out. “Simon’s hurt.”

“Oh.” 

“Careful with that tone, Doc, or I might think you don’t like me,” Simon quips, and though no pain tinges his voice, Five can’t rid themself of the image of his hand, covered in his own blood.

Five grabs the lamp, at last, and switches it on. The salon lights up, and they can see Maxine’s mouth twisted downward, the way her eyes are pinched at the corners. Half of them wants to tell her to just go back to sleep, that they know how to do field dressings, for the most part. The other half aches, loves Simon so fiercely that they’re willing to beg her for her help. Simon might not be able to die, but that doesn’t make leaving him in pain any more comforting.

“What kind of wound are we dealing with?” Maxine asks after a long moment, and Five sighs with relief before looking to Simon.

“Bullet wound,” he supplies, tone dry. “One of Moonchild’s people. It went all the way through, and it had mostly stopped bleeding until  _ someone _ ,” he raises his eyebrows at Five “decided to play rough.” There’s a pause, his eyes going up and to the right in a universal ‘listening to the operator’ way. He declines to respond to whatever Sam’s said, but he looks smug, so it was probably nothing good.

Maxine runs a hand over her dark, thick curls, and let’s out a deep breath. “Well, I have the stuff to do stitches.” 

Five goes to place the lamp on the counter near Simon, while Maxine looks through her backpack. Before they can settle into the chair beside him, Simon catches their attention and taps on his headset.

“Sam wants to talk to you,” he says. Five blinks, a small flutter of anxiety in their chest, but they fetch their still charging headset anyways. 

_ “You read me, Five?”  _ Sam asks after a brief burst of static.

“I hear you.”

_ “Great.” _

They head back to Simon, and Maxine has her equipment now. She’s carefully laying it out on the counter, the solar lamp dragged closer to aid her work. Five let’s the silence linger for a bit, before asking, “What did you need, Sam?”

It’s quiet for a moment longer.  _ “Er.” _

“He just doesn’t like me talking to you when he can’t,” Simon smirks.

_ “It’s called being protective,”  _ Sam says hotly.  _ “I actually value  _ my  _ friends and want to keep them safe!” _

“Sure, but you aren’t Five’s mum either, are you?” Simon snaps back. “They can talk to who-”

“Hey!” Maxine cuts in, brows drawn. “Enough. I don’t know what’s being said, and I don’t care. I have work to do, so all of you just shut up. Five, get his shirt up.”

This time Simon doesn’t fight Five over it, though he does make a snarky remark about the best way to get his clothes off, and they carefully pull the hem of his shirt up to see what the damage is. The bullet hole is low, just to the left of his belly button, and it’s still dripping blood that seems a little less viscous than it ought to be. Five hisses in sympathy, but Simon truly seems rather unbothered by it at the moment; they don’t know if that means it doesn’t hurt, or that he’s just used to hurting. They trace their finger over some of the light green scales that cover his skin in patches, where he’d been missing pieces of himself after that horde tore him apart.

“Alright, scoot aside, Five,” Maxine says, and they swallow hard as she comes over with the suture and some alcohol swabs. “Normally I’d want to clean this a little more thoroughly, but considering the situation we’re in, the lack of proper supplies, and that you…”

“Can’t die if it gets infected?” Simon offers. Maxine’s expression doesn’t budge.

“Yeah, that. Considering all of that, we’re going to make due,” She says, and hands Five the swabs and a bit of gauze. “You’re going to be my nurse, Five.”

Simon shifts, while Five hesitantly takes the swabs and gauze. “Y’know, like I said, it’s not like this will kill me. We can just forget about it.”

_ “Fine by me,”  _ Sam says.

Maxine hesitates, clearly torn between her dislike of Simon and her duty as a doctor. Five rips the swab open, drops the packaging, and ducks forward to clean the front of the wound.

“Five, I said-”

“Shut up, Simon,” they say, swiping the gauze over the worst of the blood to soak it up, before running the swab over the wound a few times to clean it. “We’re taking care if this.”

_ “Why are you so suddenly unsure about this?”  _ Sam asks suspiciously. Simon snorts.

“I’m not much a fan of needles,” he deflects, and Five catches his eye. The smell of the alcohol has already made their stomach start turning, but looking at Simon, hearing his voice, it helps. They just can’t remember when they’d ever told him about their growing phobia of medical facilities and procedures. 

Maybe Simon just knows. He’s made something of a habit of knowing Five.

“Lean forward so I can get the back,” Five says quietly, and he complies, letting them mop up the mess of blood there as well. When they’re done, Maxine hands them a clean piece of gauze, and then leans down to get a look at the wound.

Five has sat in on stitches before, though less often after Van Ark decided to use them as a guinea pig. They’ve helped out, so they know what to do, and since it only takes one hand to dab up blood, they offer their other hand to Simon. He looks at it and scoffs.

“What,” he says. “You think I can’t handle a little needle? I’ve had worse. Much worse.”

“I know that,” Five replies, irritated with his constant ‘woe is me’ attitude. He gives them an even look, then nods, and holds his hand out palm up. Five takes it, and turns their attention to where Maxine is pinching the skin on either side of the wound together. Simon swallows hard.

“I guess you would be the closest to knowing,” he says, a little too loudly, revealing his nervousness. “You’ve never been made zom chow or anything, or- or-”

“Regrown half my body?” Five offers, just to keep the conversation going. He laughs.

“Right. That serum though, from Van Ark. It’s no joke, even when you’re willing.”

Maxine pauses then, with the needle poised just over Simon’s flesh, the only indicator that she’s actually listening in. On the other end of the line, Five hears Sam breathing softly, too close to the mic.

“I dunno,” Five says, a shudder running up their back. “The anti-mind control serum is no joke either.”

Simon laughs, and at just that moment, Maxine presses the needle in, and he ends on a hiss.

“Don’t move,” Maxine says. Five reaches forward to dab at the syrupy blood.

_ “So it did hurt?”  _ Sam asks. Five tightens their hold on Simon’s hand. 

“Yeah,” they say.

“You screamed, is why he’s asking,” Simon tells them. “I knocked you flat on your back, shot you up, and about five seconds later while you were trying to beat the hell out of my new face, you just started screaming your head off.”

“I don’t remember,” Five says. “I remember hurting, and being scared.”

_ “You ran,”  _ Sam says.  _ “Simon said that it would hurt so bad you wouldn’t be able to move, so no one was expecting it when you just… ran.” _

The mood suddenly goes slow and tense and Five knows the three of them well enough to know they feel guilty about that. Simon’s thumb rubs their knuckles, a gesture that’s probably meant to soothe him as much as it is to soothe them. 

“Okay, the back will be easier if you lay down.” Maxine has tied off the last stitch on the front, and Simon, for once, complies without commentary, Five taking their hand away to let him go. He picks Five’s sleeping bag, and sprawls on his front, pillowing his head under his arms. Maxine kneels on one side of him, Five the other.

“Think you’re up to the task, tomorrow?” he asks. “Moonchild  _ will  _ be there, you know. She’s going to try and take the ZRD and you with it.”

_ “Shut up, Simon.” _

“He’s right, actually,” Maxine says, glancing at Five as she pinches the skin around the back wound. Five again wipes away the blood, but she holds their gaze for a moment longer. “She’s obsessed.”

“I’m aware,” Five says sharply, dearly wanting the conversation to be done. They know Moonchild wants them back. They know, and they’re terrified of it, of her, and if they’re being completely honest, they’d watched the Radio Cabel hosts sail away after catching those keys, and had been seized by the urge to dive into the water and swim after them. Anything to put as much distance between them and Moonchild as possible; maybe they could outrun the taint of her on their soul too.

Simon reaches out and places a palm on the front of their thigh. He’s so cold now. Running from his problems, his fears… It hadn’t really worked out well for him, had it? Five musters up a small smile for him. They really are more alike than anyone at Abel wants to admit. The main difference is that Simon is far more afraid of what happens after death than Five is.

Though now they think he might be afraid of what happens when he never dies. It’s hard to tell with him, sometimes. 

_ “We don’t have to worry about her anymore though,”  _ Sam says.  _ “Or, well. You don’t have to worry about her getting in your head. You’re immune now. Completely safe from those tones.” _

Five chews their lip; they know he’s right, but Moonchild is brilliant. She’s brilliant, and she wants Five back, and they can’t help but think that if they don’t manage to stop her tomorrow, then she’s going to find a way to reverse their immunity to mind control. She’s lost her father to a mistake she made years ago. She claims to love Five dearly. She’ll be more desperate than ever.

Simon winces, and without thinking, Five covers the hand he has on their leg with their own. He grabs and holds tight, and they suddenly, desperately, wish they could undo all of this. They wish they could go back and see Simon spiraling, wish they could convince him to not listen to Van Ark. Five’s not even sure they could. Some part of them will never be sure if the man they knew before is the same man they still love now. They never realized how closed off he was then, not when he approached every day with a smile and a joke.

_ “I’ll always come for you”  _ is what he’d said, and Five thinks he’s never sounded so sincere. 

Five misses the easy banter between their friends. They miss how  _ easy  _ it had been then, though they’d have never described life at that time in that way. It had seemed so dire then, but nothing has felt right since Sara died, and Simon betrayed them. Losing them had made Five realize just how much heavier the burden can be without friends to help support it.

Five still has Sam, and the others, but Sara’s gone forever, and Simon… They don’t know what will happen to Simon after this. Janine wants to arrest him, but if the order ever came for Five to be the one to bring him in, they don’t know what they’d do. They’re afraid of every possibility.

After everything is said and done tomorrow, after they stop Moonchild from ever mind controlling anyone ever again, Five thinks they’ll never see him again. He knows as well as they do that there’s no going back to Abel, and he knows too that Five will never leave. After tomorrow, Simon Lauchlan is going to slip away, forever.

“Done,” Maxine says, and Five blinks, realizing they’ve been remiss in their duties. Blood dribbles slowing from the wound that Maxine’s finished stitching, and Five dabs it up absently. Before they’re fully done, Simon rolls over and sits up, adjusting his shirt and jacket back into place.

“Thanks, Doc. No candy?” Maxine doesn’t even bother responding, just rolls her eyes and quickly puts some space between them. Simon’s smile is tight as ever, even when he looks back to Five. “Satisfied?”

Five blinks slowly, thinking about how this might be one of the last memories they’ll ever have of him. There’s a picture of him with Amelia under their bunk in Abel, and they wish they’d thought to take more of him, they wish they had a camera right now. They know their memory will fade, they’ll forget what he looks like, and they want to remember his face, every scale, scar, and freckle.

Suddenly overwhelmed, they duck forward and press a kiss to his cheek. Simon brings his hands up, grabbing their shoulders in alarm, but he doesn’t push them away. After a moment, he draws them in closer, and squeezes his arms around their middle.

“Take care of yourself, Simon,” Five mutters. “I don’t think I can.” 

Simon doesn’t say anything at all in response, but his hands grip the back of their shirt. He knows as well as they do that this is the closest thing to a goodbye they’ll be getting. Everything ends tomorrow.

For tonight, they hold each other.

 

*

 

Simon Lauchlan dies on top of the Comansys Tower, screaming and crying in pain.

Sam Yao sees a figure on fire walking out of the wreckage.

Janine de Luca dismisses the figure, preferring ignorance.

Runner Five can’t pretend to not know. 

They understand Janine’s logic; she’d be obligated to hunt him down if she knew Simon was alive. So long as she’s certain that he’s dead, she need not expend any energy looking for him. 

Runner Five looks and looks for Simon everywhere.

Five looks at Peter, and as he’s stubbing out his fifth cigarette, they find Simon.


End file.
